Page:Herr Glessner Creel - Tricks of the Press (1911).djvu/16

 in the handling of men. The idea of that consumptive boy successfully attacking Shippy was screamingly ludicrous. But Shippy had killed his man. First he boasted there would be no investigation. Then it was learned that young Averburh was a Jew. There are powerful Jewish societies in Chicago. They demanded an investigation. People began to ask questions. It became evident that there would have to be an inquest. Shippy didn't dare go before a coroner's jury with the facts as I have related them to you. His story of a sickly boy overpowering him in a rough and tumble fight wouldn't hold water. And he knew it. Everybody else in official Chicago knew it. Then the newspapers sprang to his assistance.

I have here a copy of the "Chicago American" for March 18, 1906. You'll notice a picture of "Averbuch the Athlete." This was published to be introduced at the inquest. It shows a man with tremendously muscular forearms. At the time this appeared in the Chicago papers Frank Gotch, wrestling champion of the world, was in the city. I compared these measurements with those of Gotch. Hie had no such muscular development as is here shown. To carry out the proportions, this boy's hand would have to be the size of a ham. His arm is one-half the width of his body at the shoulders. In all the history of the world there never lived a man so wonderfully developed as this one.

The inquest was held. The "Jewish World" summed up the case when it said that only God and the Shippy family knew what happened in that house—and God wasn't called to the inquest. But this photo had been circulated in the newspapers before the inquest. Public opinion had been "molded." Shippy was cleared.

I want you to look carefully at this photo. And remember, it's a fake. I've drawn some lines here with a brush. (See page 11) If you look closely you'll see that the arms have been made larger than the photo showed them originally. This is done by "retouching." Fully a third has been added to this boy's arms. All that you see below the lines I've drawn has been added. The picture